Across The Grave
by Mayuna
Summary: Ed is consumed by guilt over the loss of his friend only adding to it after he receives a phone call from beyond the grave.


Ed sat huddled next to his brother whimpering. His hands hid his face from the world as his blanketed shoulders hunched and fell as he sobbed loudly his tears mixing with the fresh rain that fell. Normally he would have been concerned that his auto-mail would get wet and rust. If his auto-mail rusted he would have to face Winry Rockbell something he dreaded but now…..He parted his fingers slightly glancing past them to see what he had been trying to shield himself from but knew that he had too all the same. The paramedics wheeled the two stretchers past both it's occupants covered by a white sheet. Crimson spread tarnishing the sheets purity. A small slim hand dangled over the side of one blood streaked and still slowly dripping from the fingertips. Ed felt the contents of his stomach threaten to make a reappearance as he willed himself to accept what had just happened and who it was that was under that blood soaked sheet. From what had deducted Winry had gone to central to visit them. Ed figured that out when he found a screw lying on the ground identical to the ones that kept his arm together. He had followed the only lead he had which were tire tracks to the truck that they belonged too. He opened the refrigerator truck and had ran to a woman huddled in a corner. He told the woman it would be alright then he had turned around, why did he turn around? His world went black as a sharp pain shot through out his neck but only for an instant. He reopened his eyes to a sound that he had grown up hearing in the Rockbell house, metal being ground against a stone. The figure stood before him revealing herself in actuality as a man. The butcher's blade that he had wielded has sent Ed's mind into a near panic and his heart into a sporadic frenzy. His right arm was gone, lying on the table. Winry stood before him her wrists bound above her head and her mouth gagged. Slowly as this obviously insane man ranted before him and whipped the blade around malevolently, Edward reached into his back pocket taking out the screw he had picked up earlier and began scratching an array into the chains that wrapped around his body binding him to the chair. From what his mind filtered in the man was Barry, a butcher who had murdered his wife and had apparently found a liking for it. The image of the week prior came to mind when he had accompanied major Hughes to the scene of a gruesome murder of a young mother. Ed gritted his teeth as Barry walked closer to him bringing his blade down on Ed's shoulder and pressed down hard enough to break the skin. Ed shut his eyes tightly squeezing out tears as the blade dug deeper , he felt his arm grow weak as his hand went cold and the screw slipped out of his finger tips. His eyes opened widely as he panicked. He pressed his fingers to the array to no avail. He hadn't had the chance to finish it. Desperately still he tried only causing him to become more frustrated. His eyes scanned his close surroundings quickly finding nothing that would be of use to him let alone reach if it had been. It was around this time that Barry walked over to Winry. Ed had screamed at the top of his lungs, "_Don't you are touch her you sick son of a bitch!", _only causing Barry to laugh and enjoy it all the more. Ed watched helplessly as his friend's throat was slit. The blood that poured out from the large angry slice was sickening, a spray erupted every other second as well as her heart pumped. She made a gagging sound then a gargle, the entire time her eyes stayed transfixed on Ed. Blue eyes wide and frightened at first, widening in pain and shock before dimming fading out forever. Barry proceeded to make a slice down her abdomen reaching his hand in taking out organs and placing them neatly on the table. Ed's head swam at the sureality of the situation before him. He was dreaming, it was just another one of his nightmares. He would wake up in the barracks drenched in that sticky cold sweat that he always seemed to accumulate when he slept. He would sit straight up and pant heavily bring a hand to his chest with one hand and grip his blankets with the other. Tears would fall down his cheeks but he knew that Winry was safe. That she was at home in Resembool, where she belonged. Why did she have to come to central. Ed's yells had died down to choked whimpers as he still begged for Barry not to touch her. The sound of a door banging open and footsteps pounding against concrete as military officers stood some feet away guns pointed at Barry. The man merely smiled sickeningly through the blood that streaked his face. He was ordered to put his weapon down, he refused and made a move to turn towards Ed. Edward yelled out in that brief moment as his eyes shut tight waiting to feel the heavy blade possibly slash his own throat. Instead he heard popping sounds and Barry cry out before a thud on the floor accompanied by the clanking of metal against the cold concrete floor. The two stretchers were placed into two separate ambulances and drove away sirens wailing.

"Brother, how are we going to tell auntie Pinako?" Al asked his voice meek and wavering. His armor clanked as he turned his head in Ed's direction. His brother trembled violently under the blanket his face was hidden from him as he hung his head down shaking it slowly from side to side.

"I couldn't protect her Al. I tried to save her, I really did but I dropped it. Our chance for escape and I dropped it…" Ed said softly his voice cracking.

"Ed don't…" Al began but knew it would be pointless as Ed stood up quickly wiping a hand across his face.

"First I hurt you and almost killed you Al. The Nina and now Winry; when the hell is this going to end? When am I going to stop hurting people and start helping them?" He said his head still hanging down. His hands clenched and unclenched. In his state of shock he was only vaguely aware of being escorted into a car and brought to the hospital where his wounds were treated. He was kept over night for observation, Al had left soon after they had arrived reassured by the second lieutenant Hawkeye that she would personally bring Al back in the morning to visit his brother. For the first time in years Al held his older brother to him in an embrace. As small children Ed had always hated it when his little brother had hugged him or worse even sometimes kissed his cheek. Ed had always protested yelling how gross it was, that brother's didn't do that but now Ed rested his head against the cool metal of Al's armor and sighed. Although Al couldn't physically feel his brother's body grow limp he sensed it which was all the more heart wrenching. Ed now sat on the edge of his bed his eyes wide and unblinking in the dark room his body slowly rocking forward and back of it's own accord. It was comforting so he didn't make an effort to stop it. His body felt numb from all external as well as any internal stimuli, he felt cold empty, dead. The phone rang loudly breaking the silence. Ed slowly turned his head in the direction of the nightstand that it sat upon shaking his head from side to side. He reached over grasping the receiver loosely and brought it to his ear.

"Hello?" Ed said mechanically simply because that is what one does. The other end was cracking with static loudly and other sounds of interference reached his ear drum. "Hello?" He asked again increasingly irritated. The static seemed to subside as something that resembled human sound could be heard faintly. He strained his hearing pressing the receiver closer to his ear and held his breath for as long as he could which became increasingly harder as his heart pumped more briskly.

"Edward……………..hel……..eeee……a….er…….me……." The frantic cries vaguely reached his ears. His breath came out quickly and hitched in his throat painfully.

"Winry?" He asked cautiously .

"Bar……y……get…….m…..e..p….ed…." The line went dead. Ed held it to his ear feeling the warm trickle of tears fall down his cheeks dripping off his chin in cascades.

(((-----------)))

Ed had decided not to tell anyone about the phone call he had received. Normally he would announce to the world and anyone else who would listen how something like that was unscientific, that it wasn't possible for the dead to communicate with the living but then again nothing like that had ever happened to him before. At first he had dismissed it as possibly being a dream but scratched it knowing he had been wide awake. The next thought to cross his mind was it may have been a delusion, that Ed had simply snapped under the pressure of watching his childhood friend killed and mutilated before his eyes. Ed sat in the Rockbell house dressed in a black suit and tie staring out the window. His right leg trembled up and down slightly causing his shoe to clunk against the wooden floor repeatedly. The sound calmed him allowing him to keep his train of thought in tact. Soon the funeral procession would walk to the cemetery, Winry would be lowered into the ground her body returned to the earth. Ed brought a finger to his mouth and bit down hard on it feeling his body start to rock as it had been doing lately. He knew that his expression was deadpan as his thoughts ran rampid. The phone began to ring. Ed grabbed the phone quickly and brought it to his ear.

"Hello." He answered sternly. The static this time accompanied by a loud buzzing noise. "Winry? Winry!"

"Hel……ed…wa…….s…..ve……me……so……sc….ared." Her cries were clearer than before but at the same time more frantic.

"Winry tell me how can I save you? How can I help?" Ed shouted into the receiver clenching his hand into a fist. The line went dead. Ed slammed the receiver back down on it's port angrily.

"Damn it all!" He shouted.

"Brother?" Al asked timidly. Ed glanced up to see his brother standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Alphonse!" Ed said shocked feeling his stomach flutter guiltily realizing he had been caught.

"Who was that just now?" Al questioned his voice frail as if afraid of the answer he would receive. Ed stared at his brother his throat clenching as the clock's second hand ticked away the minutes that passed that the two stood in the Rockbell kitchen staring at each other. Inwardly Edward was in debate. Should he tell Al and risk having his brother think he was insane? Would Al believe it, would that make things worse?

"No one, wrong number." He said softly stopping to stand next to his Alphonse.

"Brother I heard you say Winry. Ed, Winry's…."

"I said it was the wrong number Al!" He snapped his head whipping up to glare at his brother daring him to say anything else his golden eyes alive with dangerous sparks that flared in the orbs. He walked past his little brother and walked out the front door. Al stood staring at nothing knowing that if he could breathe his breath would have caught in his throat.

(((--------)))

"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to dust…." The steady hum of the priest's words barely reached Ed's ears as his eyes lingered on the mahogany casket that was being lowered steadily into the ground. The headstone read Rockbell, Sara and soon to read Winry as well. Ed listened to his breath as he inhaled and exhaled clearing his throat a few times as it became increasingly harder to fill his lungs. His fingers grasped at his tie loosening it somewhat soon to wipe his forehead, "_When the hell did it get so hot?"_ His eyes began to dart from side to side quickly as he wondered if anyone else felt it. The other mourners stood in obvious suffering over the loss of a young child but from physical stimuli apparently not. His gaze turned further to his right as a flash caught his attention. He stared hard as he saw two lights racing across the graveyard one in pursuit of the other. He blinked a few times and shook his head in an attempt to rid his vision of a mind trick before resuming to follow the lights. The theory that they could simply be fire flies was out of the question, the day was sunny and bright. Perhaps they were particles of dust that had fallen under the suns rays but never in his life had Ed seen dust move like that before. He closed his eyes again tightly trying to blink the image away and reopened them. He gasped as his throat went dry. His eyes bulged from his head as he stared in mute disbelief at the sight that lay before him. Winry ran past graves seemingly through a few still in the white dress she had worn that night. She glanced over her shoulder every so often and screamed mutely as Barry closed in on her brandishing his butchers blade that was caked with dried blood, Winry's blood.

"Winry!" Ed shouted as he milled through the other mourners ignoring their gasps at his sudden eruption He ignored his brother's yell for him as he ran towards Winry as she ran further from him. Edward out stretched his arm towards her. "Get the hell away from her you sick freak!" He shouted as Barry began to close the gap between them. Ed pumped his legs harder feeling the soft earth give way under his feet. "Winry!" He called out again as fresh tears sprang to his eyes trickling down his face. He fell hard upon the ground before he even realized he had tripped over a small head stone that jutted out of the ground. His head hit another grave stopping his momentum causing his neck to feel as if it were an accordion. He quickly wiped the trickle of blood that fell down attempting to stand only to fall back to his knees.

"Brother!" Al shouted shaking his shoulder gently. "What are you doing?" His voice demanding and thick with grief accompanied by the tears he could not shed. Ed shrugged his hand off of his shoulder braced himself against the headstone.

"Winry where are you?" He called out his eyes desperately scanning all areas that were with in his line of sight in the cemetery. Al stood up and grasped Ed by the shoulders.

"Edward, Winry is dead!" He yelled shaking Ed forcefully. Ed shook his head grasping Al by the wrists.

"You don't understand Alphonse! I know that she's dead but Barry's still after her!" He shouted back his face twisting in anger.

"Ed that's not possible, when you die you go to the gate. Why would Winry and Barry still be here? It doesn't make any sense." Al said trying to fight to get some sort of reason into his brother's head. Ed pushed his brother's hands away.

"Like you think I can explain it Al!" He said walking past his brother. "All I know is I have to find a way to help her!"

(((-------)))

Al sighed standing on the balcony of the Rockbell house flickering the lantern on and off. He had hoped the beacon would bring his brother home, it had always worked when they were children. His mother would flash a lantern from the top window in their house and the brother's always came running. Al shook his head feeling the emotional anguish envelop him, the sun was beginning to rise and still there was no Edward. He was about to give up when he caught a figure walking down the road. From a distance it was hard to see who it was but as the person walked closer it became apparent there were actually three people and one was carrying something. Al ran down the stairs uncaring if he woke Pinako up or not. He flung open the door just as the men walked up the porch steps. Al stared at what they had been carrying. They laid it on the ground as Al fell to his knees. The lively golden eyes were dulled over as brackish water oozed from his nose and mouth. His lips were blue as his wet hair clung to his pale flesh.

"We found him by the river. Al I'm sorry…." One of the men said. Al shook his head in disbelief as sobs escaped his empty metal body.

"Brother, I don't understand. How could you….leave me behind?"

(((-----)))

Al sat staring at everything but seeing nothing. His armor creaked as he rocked slightly trembling violently. Ed's funeral was in procession but Al had refused to go. It was just a body, his brother was gone. The same question crossed his thoughts in a whirl wind, "_Brother what were you thinking. Why?_" The phone rang. Al turned his head slowly towards the sound reaching out lazily to the receiver. He placed it to the side of his helmet.

"Hello?" He asked flatly. Static crackled on the other end as well as a faint buzzing sound.

"Hey Alphonse, I'm sorry about what happened I just wanted you to know that Winry is safe." Al stared gripping the receiver tightly. The line went dead.


End file.
